When he says it, you're happy and grateful and relieved, of course, but there's a deeper aspect. The idea of being a good girl is aspirational. You want to live up to it. You try your best to earn that sentiment by being a woman who deserves it.

That's why hearing it validates you. Those words are never an exception, never a reward for something out of the ordinary. You worry you're one-dimensional in this sense, like a side character in a book who isn't given desires out of keeping with her role in the story. Part of it is about excellence, striving to give him the best woman you can, but a larger part is about identity. You don't want to hear that you're a good girl. You want to be one, all the time. You want it to be you.

Because he's the sort of man who's the obverse, the dominant equivalent. He only ever does his best. Neither of you are perfect but you both try so hard, and he forgives your failures and supports your efforts and praises you, every time, for your successes. With him, you're seen. You love him so deeply.

That love would degrade anyone else, but it uplifts you.

You want to serve, not just because you feel like you were born for it, but because he inspires it in you. He makes you feel like yourself. He deserves the service of his partner, and you're lucky that what he deserves is exactly who you want to be. The details don't matter - just the chance to make him happy.

Because he makes you so happy. He's wise and kind and strong, patient and funny and encouraging and good. He expects a lot from you and holds you accountable, so you know he sees everything you do for him. He gives you discipline and structure and clear communication, and you don't need these things because you're lacking - you need them because they feels right.

You want to be where he puts you because it means you belong there, that you're in your place.

You want to take what he gives you because it means he wants you to have it, a gift, an honor.

You want to feel his love because it supercharges your own. His passion and intensity make you so excited to please him, follow him, give him your all. He loves you so much that you're able only to be in awe and love him more.

Your volition isn't swept away by your love for him. It's buoyed by it. You feel more capable and empowered at his feet than you ever did independently. You can hold your agency up and make it an offering to him out of love and devotion and trust. Every day.

And every day, ever chance you get, you do. He sees it every time. He celebrates the fact, the fact that your actions assert, that you're giving him your best. That you want to give him even more. That you're his.

Thank goodness.

Tl;dr: Insightful man seeks smart, self-aware woman for realistic life-long TPE relationship. Please inquire via PM for so, so many more details.